Bankes targeting Olympic and World Cup success after injury setback

Last season’s fight for the women’s Snowboard Cross Crystal Globe was a thriller, with British rider Charlotte Bankes and France’s Lea Casta separated by only 17 points coming into the last two races in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

On the way to those final races in April, Bankes had notched up her 25th individual World Cup victory; she is second only to Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) in terms of all-time victories.  

But, just before the penultimate race, Bankes crashed in training and broke her collarbone, pushing her out of contention and leaving Casta to secure her maiden Crystal Globe.

The Briton spent the summer recuperating from her injury, only just making it back in time to start the first World Cup of the 2025/26 season in Cervinia. A mistake in the individual event quarterfinals meant she missed out on a chance to reach her first podium of the year, but Bankes bounced back the following day to claim the win in the Mixed Team event alongside Huw Nightingale.

Bankes says recovery from the collarbone injury was a frustrating process.

“The first part went quite smoothly,” she explains, “but in August we realised it hadn’t healed and had to make that call to have a second surgery and start from scratch again.

“It was tough as this process was very slow and we weren’t really sure of a timeline. Also I’d been looking forward to being back on snow to work on some areas and instead ended up back doing all my training indoors, having to adapt a lot of it due to the restrictions we had,” Bankes adds.

She says the second surgery in August shifted her priorities from the World Cup season to being ready for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February, although the cancelation of planned January races in Gudauri and Isola 2000 added pressure to be ready for Cervinia. 

Bankes split her summer between rehab in the UK and time sailing, cycling and walking her dogs at her home in France. Like many other snowboarders, she can often be found on the water or bike trails in the offseason.

Although she had only managed a couple of weeks on snow ahead of Cervinia, by the time Great Britain had their final pre-World Cup camp in Pitztal, Bankes says she was finally able to pull out of the start gate at 100%.

“These first races came quite quickly for me which meant I didn’t feel 100% ready, but we just approached it as a good stepping stone and just kept focused on the process. To be in that racing environment is the best training we can get,” Bankes says.

Despite her individual error, Bankes says she was satisfied with the weekend’s results.

“It still helped to see I was back at a good level, I’d been fast in training and was happy to have the team event to get more miles in on a World Cup track,” she explains.

“I honestly really didn’t expect it to go that well and was just really happy to finish off the week on a really positive note which rewarded the whole team for their work.”

Bankes and Nightingale were 2023 world champions in the Mixed Team event, and have consistently put out strong performances on the World Cup circuit. Last season Nightingale achieved his best-ever World Cup and World Championships results, and he always produces strong performances leading Bankes out in the team races.

“Each time Huw rides so well I feel I’m in a good position and can’t mess it up,” says Bankes of their partnership. “I think it’s partly down to the strength of our team as a whole, and I think what is required from each athlete in the team event really suits both our ways of riding.

At the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Nightingale and Bankes finished sixth in the Mixed Team event; Bankes, in her third Olympic Games, was ninth in the individual. Despite her collarbone injury she comes into Milano Cortina with a string of strong results behind her, having won the Crystal Globe in 2022 and 2023 and finished second in the last two seasons, plus securing silver at the Engadin 2025 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in a photofinish with Michela Moioli (ITA).

Bankes says she is looking forward to Milano Cortina as her first Olympic Games in Europe, and being able to “share the experience and putting on a great show with tight battles to really highlight our sport”.

At the age of 30 Bankes has now been competing for 15 years internationally, first for France (where she grew up) before switching to representing her birth country of Great Britain in 2018. But she still finds the thrill in Snowboard Cross, and believes the level of competition has developed significantly in her time on the circuit.

“It’s evolved a lot, we’ve had to adapt to less snow and therefore smaller tracks. But I think the level has really progressed, which means we all try to progress and keep pushing each other and makes for tight intense racing,” Bankes says.

Her focus now turns to the World Cup in Dongbeiya, China, on 17 and 18 January, before Milano Cortina. And with more time on snow under her belt, look out for Bankes’ trademark overtakes and fierce competitive spirit as she hunts for a maiden Olympic medal and more World Cup success this season.